


The Name of the Dark One

by Briar_Rose7



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate 5x01, Doctor Who References, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 06:44:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4909312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briar_Rose7/pseuds/Briar_Rose7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The projection in Emma's mind is not the Dark One but Rumplestiltskin himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Name of the Dark One

**Author's Note:**

> Just a One Shot that I felt the need to write. That’s the kind of thing that happens when I’m full of feels because of both Ouat and Doctor Who (I finished S7 a bunch of days ago). It’s unbetaed and I’m not an english mother-tongue, so it’s probably full of mistakes. Ok, and I may have written Rumple a bit OOC, but I really don’t know. I like this fic, but that doesn’t mean it’s well written. Any kind of comment or suggestion is greatly appreciated ^__^  
> As you’ll see, it’s a sort of alternate version of some scenes from 5x01, focusing on Rumple, Rumbelle and Emma.  
> Some lines are taken from “The Name of the Doctor”, from which I also took the idea for the title.

“Who’s there?” Emma spun around and gaped at the man in front of her.

“You’re supposed to be in Storybrooke. You were in a coma.” And yet Gold was there, staring at her with his reptilian eyes. How was that possible? Wasn’t she the Dark One now?

“Yes I am.” Suddenly, even in all his sparkly skin and spooky attire, Rumplestiltskin didn’t look like a demon anymore. In his eyes and voice, Emma could sense a man. A very sad, tired man. “But what just happened isn’t normal. You broke the rules of the Dark One’s curse and now we must pay the price. You didn’t kill me, so the darkness that is now bound to you has not totally left me either. It seeps through your soul and mine as well. And as long as we can’t find a way to break this bond, I’ll be asleep in Storybrooke and half-alive here, barely more than a ghost only for you to see.”

“How do we break it?” 

“You’ve heard the Apprentice, Merlin might have the answer. I, for once, don’t.”

“But what if we can’t find him or he doesn’t know how to help us?”

“Then you’ll be the Dark One just like I was, while I’ll probably just fade away in short time. When the Apprentice took the curse out of me there was very little of myself left; not nearly enough to wake up on my own and just barely enough to linger here for a while.” What shocked Emma the most was the utter resignation with which he spoke of his impending death. Like it wasn’t important, like he didn’t care. She had learned not to trust him but she would have never wished anyone this.

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

“Don’t be. I’ve done too many horrible things in my life, I’ve never deserved happiness. But you, Emma, you’re different. You can fight this thing. Please, please destroy this curse. Destroy the curse that ruined so many lives, especially Bae’s. Don’t let your son grow up with the Dark One as a parent like I did.” And as the thought of Henry took hold on her mind, she felt like a weight was being taken from her heart.

“What’s happening?

“That’s love keeping the darkness at bay. Hold onto that love, focus on that. Because from the very moment you took on the curse the darkness has been gnawing at your soul, whispering in your consciousness, taking your every fear, insecurity and doubt and starting to use it against you. You don’t even realize that the darkness is there until love makes you feel better. Trust me, I know.”  
“Why should I trust you? You tried to put me into that hat, you’d have left the whole town to die, you wanted to turn me dark!” She could feel rage boiling in her veins with an unusual strength, her fingers already  tickling with magic.

“You’re right, I’m not a good person, but I want what’s best for Henry. If you give into the darkness he’ll get hurt and I already saw Bae going through this. I took the curse on to protect him and I failed, but at least I want to prevent history from repeating itself. I want to protect my grandson.” It took a while for the meaning of his words to sink in.

“You took on the curse to protect Neal?” She realized she’d never wondered how he’d become the Dark One. It was just strange to imagine him as anything but the most powerful man around.

“Yes, on the day of his fourteenth birthday. He was going to be drafted for the Ogre wars and I couldn’t let him go; he would have been slaughtered. I set fire to a castle, took the dagger and summoned the Dark One. Then I killed him, as I killed the guards who came to take my boy the morning after, and as I’ve killed anyone who hurt him ever since. But trust me, if I had a chance to go back in time I wouldn’t change one bit of that night. Because as much as it hurt him, as much as it broke his heart, my darkness bought him hundreds of years of life. He had a chance to love, he had a chance to be a father, he had a chance to be the hero he always wanted to be. My soul is a small price for that.” She should have shuddered at the thought, should have been horrified by this man who didn’t regret killing so many people, but there was only one coherent thought forming in her head, loud and clear over the wicked voices in her head.

“Henry would have never been born if it weren’t for you.”

“Indeed. And at the same time, Henry was destined to be my undoing. Life really has a weird sense of humor.”

“Why did you change so much? I mean, you were ready to give your life to save Henry even if you knew he was your undoing, you actually sacrificed yourself to kill Pan, and then you went back to being a villain. Why?” He sighed deeply and was silent for so long Emma thought he wouldn’t answer.

“Too many things happened. I lost my sanity, my freedom, my son. It broke me more than I thought was possible. And when I came back, when I finally thought I could try to move on, I realized I couldn’t. Fighting this curse is like fighting an illness; you can’t do it if you’re already weakened, if you don’t really want to live. And, without my son, I didn’t.”

“What about Belle?” At the mention of her name, his gaze turned softer, even if still pained.

“Belle was all I had left, but she couldn’t fix me. I love her with all there’s left of my heart, but I was too scared to tell her how broken I was, too ashamed. I hid the truth from her as I tried to find a way to feel better, focusing on the hat in the foolish hope that being free of the dagger would have made me feel whole again. Then she banished me and the curse started to completely take over; at that point, I was just trying to find a way not to drawn into the darkness. I wasn’t even completely lucid at some moments.”

“Is that what’s going to happen to me? The curse will consume me until there will be nothing left? 

“Not if we stop it first. And it takes a lot of time for it to consume you anyway. I bore the curse for hundreds of years and I didn’t have all the love you have in your life to hold it back.”

“Are you kidding me? My life has always been a mess and love was definitely not a great part of it. Not for the first twenty eight years, anyway.”

“But now you feel loved. You have your parents, you friends, you son and, as much as I loathe it, you have your pirate’s love. I only had Bae.”

“I thought your son’s love would be enough for you.”

“I had spent my whole life struggling to put a meal on the table, hearing people call me coward and unworthy of respect. I was powerless, poor and friendless. Giving in to the darkness looked to me like the best choice to protect my son.” She didn’t know how to respond at that and, after an awkward silence, she chose to change the subject.

“So… what do we do now?” 

“Now… now we start looking for Merlin.”

* * *

Her family had come for her; the thought nearly brought tears to her eyes. They’d make it just in time to stop her from killing Merida; Gold, even with all of his experience, could not keep her away form the darkness. The curse was still woven into his soul and his mind was filled with the same voices that haunted hers. But her family could ground her, help her stay good until they could find Merlin. 

As soon as they’d started walking toward Granny’s (they’d brought Granny’s to the Enchanted Forest; she was still trying to wrap her mind around that concept) Gold had reminded her that no one but her was able to see him, so she should avoid talking to him if she didn’t want to look like a crazy woman. He’d also asked her not to tell anyone what he’d told her. A secret between Dark Ones, he’d called it.

She greeted Granny and the Dwarves, and watched carefully as Zelena was escorted outside of the building. Hook left her side to help David control that the witch was properly tied. She felt a sudden urge of rage and almost… _bloodlust_ in front of her. She had tried to kill half her family, she’d almost killed Henry, she was the reason why Neal was gone. 

_Kill her_ , whispered the voice in her head, but she knew better than that. She held Henry’s hand tighter and kept walking, only focusing on the thought that her son was safe by her side.

The only adult left in the diner was Belle, who was sitting in a booth facing away from her. She had Roland in her lap and was rocking what Emma supposed to be baby Neal’s cradle. She was reading them some fairytale.

“Grand… ehm, Belle, look! My mom is here.” Belle gently lifted Roland off her lap and got up, taking the fairytale book with her.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I knew you were here but I just wanted to be sure Neal was properly asleep. He was very upset after our landing and…” The book fell from her numb hands to the floor as she stared in shock at something behind Emma’s back.

“Rumple…” She ran and threw herself in his arms before anyone could even process what had happened.

“How can you even do this?” His voice was already broken from emotion. No matter how impossible this situation was, he had Belle in his arms again. Even if he died without ever waking up in Storybrooke, he’d been gifted with one more moment with the woman he loved.

“What do you mean? And how can you be here? You were in the shop when I left.” Her eyes were shining with tears.

“I’m still in the shop. This is only a projection of me in Emma’s mind. I’m still bound to the Dark One’s curse, so I’m bound to her. But how can you see me and touch me if I’m not really here?” He cradled her face in his hands, losing himself in her eyes once more.

“You’re always here to me. And I always listen and I can always see you.”

“I love you.” He needed to say it. He needed for her to know he’d always loved her and that she _was_ enough for him, that she was his everything, that power had never meant more than her, not since the day she’d stopped him from killing Robin. Yes, he’d tried to have both her love and his power, but she’d always meant more.

“I love you, too.” She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him, and for a few shining moments everything was fine, _they_ were fine. She wrapped her arms around his back and pretended he was really here, that he wasn’t just a projection in her mind. She’d kissed him in his scaly form only once, but their first kiss was nothing like this. That kiss had been tentative and brief, this was intense and desperate, but filled with the same, undying love that had bound them for over thirty years.  
When they parted, he pressed her forehead against hers. 

“Since you and Emma are the only ones who can see me, I wonder how that must have looked.” As much as the situation was painful, they both giggled at that, and if Belle had turned around she would have seen an embarrassed and mildly shocked Emma trying to cover Roland’s eyes, while Henry was just puzzled. But the mention of Rumple's actual state brought her mind back to the danger he was in and how she was probably the greater responsible for that.

“I’m so sorry I banished you, I’m sorry I didn’t understand, I’m sorry I left you alone in the shop, but I thought Merlin might know a way to wake you up…”  
“Hush, sweetheart. I’m the one who’s sorry. I lied to you, I hurt you, I broke your heart. But everything I did was because I thought it was the only way to make you happy.”

“I saw that the darkness being ripped out of you. I knew you were cursed but I never really understood how badly it was affecting you. I’ve been so stupid… will you ever forgive me?” He hugged her tighter.

“Of course I forgive you, Belle.” She sniffed, hiding her face in the crook of his neck.

“And I forgive you. We’ll start our relationship over again once I’m back in Storybrooke, I promise. And this time I’ll really be by your side for better or for worse, but you have to let me in.” She felt him go stiff in her arms. “What’s wrong, Rumple?”

“It’s just… I can’t wake up on my own, you know, and I really don’t know what could help me. Maybe Merlin really is our only hope.” 

“There’s something you’re not telling me. Rumple, please, be honest.”

“I don’t want to make you feel obligated! How do you think I would feel if you got in danger trying to save me?” He was trying to avoid her gaze, but she forced him to look at her.

“Just tell me.”

“We don’t have much time. I’m just an echo and if I don’t wake up soon enough I’ll fade away forever.” She clutched him tighter, fear gnawing at her guts, but her eyes were filled with resolution.

“I _will_ save you, Rumple. I promise.”

“I trust you with my life and soul. Always have. But please don’t put yourself in danger because of me. I wouldn’t stand that.” His voice was muffled by her hair and she could barely hear him, but she didn’t want him to move. Not yet, at least. There were so many obstacles ahead of her and for a few moments more she just wanted to forget all of them.

“I’ll be careful. And then we’ll be together. And this time it will be forever.”

After all they’d been through, after all the mistakes they’d both made, life was giving them another chance. And this time they would take it.

Together.


End file.
